Dominion Plan for New Gas-Fired Power Plant Would Worsen the Climate Crisis

Statement from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network on Dominion’s latest bull****:

RICHMOND-Dominion Resources, already the top emitter of planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution in Virginia, announced a proposal this morning to build a new 1,600-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Southside Virginia. If approved, the plant would be the largest gas-fired power plant in the state.

Kirsten Collings, deputy director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:

“You can’t solve the climate crisis by investing in more fossil fuels. A growing body of evidence shows that fracked gas could be worse for the climate than coal over the next 20 years because of leaks of heat-trapping methane. Governor McAuliffe has his facts wrong in endorsing this project as ‘clean,’ just as he did when endorsing Dominion’s massive Atlantic Coast pipeline for fracked gas.

“The reality is that Virginia simply doesn’t need and can’t afford new investments in fossil fuels. Dominion could more than offset the need to build a new gas-burning power plant by investing in modest energy-saving technologies that would reduce demand along with Virginians’ utility bills. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Virginians pay the 7th highest average electric bills in the nation, and our state ranks near the bottom on energy efficiency. Dominion should invest in the commonwealth’s vast clean energy resources, which would create jobs, lower bills and reduce emissions of climate-disrupting pollution.”